Homosexuality - Nature or Nurture

Homosexuality
Nature or Nurture Have you ever wondered what creates a persons sexual preference? Is it possible that their social influences and environment can lead them to certain sexual practices and same sex relationships or could it be that some people have a genetic makeup that makes it completely natural to be attracted to members of the same sex? These questions lead us to the long-lived debate of nature or nurture. Some scientists believe that people behave as they do according to their genetic predispositions or even "animal instincts." This is known as the "nature" theory of human behavior. Other scientists believe that people think and behave in certain ways because they are taught to do so. This is known as the "nurture" theory of human behavior. Is a person nurtured into becoming homosexual or are they just born that way. Nurture advocates have argued this debate with theories such as adopted lifestyle, child abuse and distant father theories. Still these theories lack the evidence supported by studies to prove them to be anything but just ideas. Although, nurture can be a slight influence, it is not a determinant. Through numerous studies to support their theories, Nature has proven with solid biological evidence to be the true cause of homosexuality. A Fast-growing understanding of the human genome has recently made it clear that both sides may partly be right. Nature endows us with inborn abilities and traits, while nurture takes these genetic tendencies and molds them as we learn and mature (Longino, pg154). End of story, right? Hardly, the "nature vs. nurture" debate still surges on, as scientist fight over how much of whom we are is shaped by genes and how much by the environment. Scientists supporting nature theories have known for years that traits such as eye color and hair color are determined by specific genes encoded in each human cell. The Nature Theory takes things a step further to say that a more abstract trait such as personality, intelligence, aggression, and sexual orientation are also encoded in an individual's DNA (Lewontin and Rose and Kamin, 137). In today’s biological research and discovery of human genes, there has been scientific proof documenting the broad majority of biological functions our genes are responsible for. These discoveries have opened the doors to possibilities that homosexuality could have a genetic and biological foundation (Shmidt, pg.56). Animal studies have discovered clues to the nature of homosexuality, and proposed theories that include the existence of a “gay gene” that actually causes homosexuality and the possibility of hormone influencing brain development and sexual orientation during the gestation of a fetus (Moalem, 166). Historically people have turned to animal observations and their behaviors to gain a feel for what is natural and what is not. It is believed that if animals ate for energy and mated to ensure the proliferation of their species, that it would also be natural for Man to engage in these same activities. Consequently, supporters whom share the same belief that homosexuality is natural, cite numerous examples of homosexuality occurring both in wild and captive animals. A prime example is held in the Manhattan’s Central Park Zoo. It was here in 2004 where the two housed male penguins successfully coupled for over six years. This male penguin couple was even able to incubate a fertilized egg that was given to them by the zoo’s chief keeper, their incubation resulted to a live birth of a chick (Smith, Online). There are numerous accounts of homosexual behavior in other animals, such as giraffes, birds, rams, bottle-nosed dolphins and many more (Bagemihl, 47). While this does present a great argument of homosexuality being natural, there is a danger in using animals as a gage for determining if something is natural or not (Bagemihl, 339). For example, there are some animals, such as the hamster that are...

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...Homosexuality: A Case of Nature versus Nurture
By
Idette Adams
Instructor: Mr. Simbarashe Chiduma
A RESEARCH PAPER
Submitted to
Baker College in partial fulfillment of requirements
For class: Soc 201
Winter 2012
Homosexual is defined as: “of, relating to, or characterized by a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another of the same sex” (Webster’s Dictionary, 4th ed., 2003)
The nature approach is based on a chance that humans are born with a specific gene that determines if they will be homosexual. "In other words, some people are born gay." (Johnson, 2003)
The nurture approach tells that people are influenced by their surroundings. In this approach, "A nurtured gay person is one that is 'made' gay." (Johnson, 2003)
Originally the American Psychological Association (APA) had deemed homosexuality a mental disease. The debate now- a-days revolve around if sexuality is based on nature, a person’s environment, or based on nurture, a person’s upbringing.
Alfred Kinsey pioneered one of the earliest experiments in the 1930s. Kinsey’s research resulted in little besides putting the word homosexual into the common language.
Karen Hooker completed the first psychological test in 1957. The research was put together to investigate the relationship between homosexuality, psychological development, and illness. The subjects...

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...Abstract
The quest to achieve ultimate unity has become quite the hot topic in present years. In Ryan D. Johnson’s online research article, Homosexuality: Nature or Nurture, an explanation of homosexuality is broken down so the world has a better understanding of homosexuals. As referred to in the title, the origin of homosexuality has been debated to be because of nature or nurture. Basically, are people gay because it’s their personal choice or is it just who they are? The idea behind nurture is that the way one was raised can eventually affect a child’s sexual preference. In the first paragraph of this study, Johnson travels back to ancient Greece claiming that homosexuality has been around for ages, yet the root of the question still seems to be up in the air. According to the APA “sexual orientation is not a choice…[but] social theorists argue that on individual’s upbringing can directly influence this” (Johnson 1). Biological theorists believe that there is an actual genetic way of justifying homosexuality. Scientists and Psychoanalysts have evaluated the chromosomes of straight and gay males nonetheless the hypothalamus, and other certain wavelengths of their brains to find any comparisons to give reason to such different sexual preferences. This study focuses on the internal and external factors that could possibly...

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...NATURE VS NURTURE
Amanda Slaven 2k Development through the life stages M1
Introduction
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Our development can be affected by many things; some development is affected before we are even born passed on through the genes this is the nature side of the debate there are many children born with diseases which affect them physically, mentally, emotionally and socially an example of this could be downs syndrome, this is because of an extra chromosome in the genetic makeup which causes downs syndrome but what caused this extra chromosome in the first place was it something within the environment that caused the extra chromosome this would then fall on the nurture side this could also be used for obesity...

...AllPsych Journal
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Homosexuality: Nature or Nurture
Ryan D. Johnson
April 30, 2003
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In recent decades, many hotly debated topics have come under the scrutiny of sociobiologists, trying to determine their causation and origins. One such topic is homosexuality. Originally thought by the American Psychological Association (hereafter referred to as APA) to be a mental disorder, research into its causes, origins, and development have consequently led to its removal by the APA from its list of diagnoses and disorders [1]. Many different theories can be found regarding the root of homosexuality, as far back historically as Ancient Greece. The current debate is whether or not homosexuality is a result of nature: a person's environment and surroundings, or of his biology and genetics. The debate endures because both sides have the ability to create a scientific environment to support their cause. For example, biological theorists may argue that a monkey and human child, reared in the same setting, will develop with vastly different outcomes, while social theorists may argue that monozygotic twins, one reared normally and the other raised in seclusion for 18 years, will also develop with vastly different results,...

...Let me first begin by clearly stating our position: homosexuality is a product of nature. In other words, someone's genetic makeup--their being in the physiological sense--strongly influences whether or not they will end up gay or heterosexual. Any role that the environment, or nurture, plays in the determination of someone's sexual orientation is minimal at best, but the role of nature in this determination is drastic.
Take the case of Jamie Nabozny, a 21-year-old-gay-man who recently sued his former high school (Ashland High School in Wisconsin); three administrators were found liable for not protecting him from years of verbal and physical abuse for being gay. When he went to this high school, Jamie was constantly abused by fellow students because he was gay. Students pretended to rape him; one pushed him to the ground and did this as others laughed. They even spit on him. They knocked him to the ground, kicked him, and then he had to go to the hospital for surgery for internal bleeding. Four times he tried to commit suicide. All of this because he came out of the closet that he was gay. All of this because he was different; because being different in small-town Ashland was unacceptable and even punishable. The administrators did nothing to stop this horrific student-body treatment of Jamie, even after he repeatedly came to them for help.
He was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Nabozny grew up in...